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Omelet with Cheese

A quick egg and cheese dish cooked in butter, seasoned with salt, cayenne, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Omelet with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. Add the grated cheese to the beaten eggs.

  4. Season the mixture with salt, cayenne, and white pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the egg and cheese mixture into the hot butter.

  2. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens to the consistency of cold, thick cream.

  3. Serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the structure that sets into the body of the omelet when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the pan.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and creaminess as it melts into the eggs.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set with heat, so stirring keeps the curds small and the texture smooth. If the heat is too high or the mixture is left still, it can scramble or overcook unevenly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, cheese, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cheese, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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